Rosemary Butcher: jottings on signature in the presence of the artist.

How readily can we move from writing or talking "about the artist", to talking "in the presence of the artist"? Without the presence of the artist, do we not condemn ourselves to outdated representations, in the third person? In "Jottings on Signature...", I ask what exactly the name of the artist means, and whether or not we should not understand the name invoked to stand for a body of creative work which is unfinished, dynamic, driven, and im-pressed with signature marks that are - paradoxically - recognisable, always new, qualitatively transformed, and likely to surprise? "Signature" fell out of favour - in theory - in the later decades of the 20thC, yet those who invoke the name of the artist, and who thereby reference a body of work, are always also identifying signature marks and their effects.